How to Succeed in Bassness

Chuck decides to move up his hotel nightclub's opening and enlists Serena's help to get the word out to her celebrity clients for publicity reasons. Feeling left out of the planning, Blair ...
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Storyline

Chuck decides to move up his hotel nightclub's opening and enlists Serena's help to get the word out to her celebrity clients for publicity reasons. Feeling left out of the planning, Blair attempts to win Chuck's approval by secretly helping him with a problem concerning opening night. Meanwhile, Dan is unnerved when he finally watches one of Olivia's infamous simulated sex scenes in one of her movies with co-star and real-life boyfriend at the time, Patrick Robinson. Jenny is forced to choose between her friendship with Eric and her new role as Queen Bee of Constance Billiard since she and the Mean Girls are not required to have any friends, except the ones their own vicious and cynical circle. Elsewhere, Rufus gets Lily into the Halloween spirit by taking her out to a costume party. Written by
matt-282

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Trivia

The dress Lily holds up to Jenny and asks if it still fits is Jenny's school uniform from season 2. It looks similar to the dress she made when she quit working in Gossip Girl: Pret-a-Poor-J (2008). You can tell by the the upper part of the clothes. The school uniform has straps and the dress has pink on the sleeves as well as the bottom. See more »

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User Reviews

There may come a point in your life where you would have to choose between what's best for a friend or your boyfriend. Even if you think you would be right choosing one way, you would not be able to avoid hurting someone close to you. Blair had a series of battles on her hands in 'How to Succeed in Bassness'. It made sense why Chuck's desires came over Serena's needs; Chuck was the one who resented her for manipulating him in 'Enough about Eve'. Blair seems to find different ways to make every situation centered around her and she rarely notices how her decisions affect those around her.

Chuck's desire to open a club circled the entire plot which brought the cast together again. The writers are beginning to form a sense of redundancy when it comes to delivering a storyline for each episode. There is always one main event and all the main characters are centered around it. This episode does explain why the writers chose to omit any advancement with respect to Chuck's restaurant and his idea to place a club. They obviously wanted an episode dealing specifically with Chuck and his business life.

The Club gave Blair and Chuck the ability to soften their hearts for each other and work as a team. Although I believe Chuck should know Blair well enough to figure out that manipulations would not surpass her, but there is a line Blair should not ever cross. There is not many things anyone could do when it comes to manipulations, deceit and slander, Blair should know well enough that Jack Bass would be the last person Chuck would confide in. I suppose she was desperate enough, Blair doesn't have that many people in her life she trusts, so the first hint of resentment in Chuck's mood made her draw her weapon bruising anyone in her way. Even Serena got bruised; which leaves Chuck as the only person in Blair's life. Can Blair safely say her relationships would last if she doesn't change her childish acts?

Serena has been facing her very own series of dilemmas this season. Choosing to break up her ex-boyfriend's blooming relationship over keeping her job would have been messy if she didn't decide to fill Dan and Olivia in on KC's plan of sabotage. Dating a stud like Dan must not be giving Olivia a 'Wow' of a career booster, but it does leave room for gossip. Olivia and Dan's relationship has reached a certain point where there's no where left to go. They've done the 'I like you', 'we're an official couple', but they didn't necessarily 'seal the deal' on their relationship.

I may have admired their make-out sessions, but the sex scene was less to be desired. Maybe it was the lack of development in their relationship and the validity of them as a couple. I find myself wondering that if Olivia's this 'big star', Dan himself should feel intimidated to go all the way. On the other hand, sleeping with someone famous could be something like a dream come true.

Lily seems to be playing the mother-card lately for some unlikely characters; Jenny was on top of her list regarding the 'poorly effective' mean-girls attempt. Those girls are either trying too hard or are not even trying at all, I could say the same for Jenny. Blair did tell her that she should marry her country (in this case school) and accept the fact that people would hate her, but the last person Jenny should ever kick in the butt was Eric. Taylor Momsen's take on Jenny somehow reflects the changes in her rock-star lifestyle and her dealings with her band 'Pretty Reckless'. It still doesn't excuse her from trading her appearance of the Jenny we once knew. I really couldn't care for the 'mean attempts' towards Eric and Johnathan, especially since their was enough room on the stairs for Eric to move around.

'How to Succeed in Bassness' leaned towards the conflict between Chuck and himself. Chuck tries to prove over and over that he's nothing like his father, yet he still bears similar characteristics. He has chosen to settle down with someone he loves or could love very deeply, and he's vested his life into his business. The only problem is that it didn't end well with his father, which is why Chuck becomes so persistent when the fate of his life is unknown. Blair doesn't make things easy for them either. I really want Blair to snap out of whatever trance she is in, stop clinging on to others and become to strong individual I know she is. She needs to focus on the serious part of school life. Sure NYU might not be Yale in her opinion, but that only adds to the thrill of getting to face her challenges.

As much as there were some questionable, head scratching moments, I liked this episode a bit more than last week's. At one point I believed that Blair would have surely kissed a girl to end her feud with Chuck, but maybe he would have loved it too much for it to be punishment.

Serena and Nate still have leftover issues to deal with, but I actually admire Nate' friendship with Dan, it actually shows a different side to him and lifts the humor in the plot. It was no surprise why Nate admired Olivia's 'Endless Knights', which looked more like a porno than a Vampire film. Dan's reaction to the movie was certainly Classic, faking a cold pushed the limit even further when Olivia called. He should have anticipated that his girlfriend would want to see if he was alright and not wait a matter of days later.

Lexa Reviews

http://lexabuti.blogspot.com

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Four Stars

Grade B+

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